LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A San Diego children's hospital unveiled a collection of remote controlled luxury mini cars on Tuesday that allow its young patients to 'drive' themselves to the operating room.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Swinging dumbbells and chewing gum, several elderly Japanese gathered at a shrine in downtown Tokyo on Monday in sweltering temperatures, belying their age and importance in one of the world's most rapidly aging societies.

At Pet Rainbow Fiesta, a pet funeral expo, held in Tokyo on Monday, visitors were given a host of options on performing rites for dead pets, including cremation, constructing a household altar and making offerings of incense.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's government this week urged citizens to see rabbits as more than "cute pets" as it defended a plan to breed and eat them even as the opposition says this would do nothing to end chronic food shortages.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters) - Scientists taking on the deep questions of whether cats are liquid or solid, how holding a crocodile influences gambling and whether playing the didgeridoo can help cure snoring were honored Thursday at the Ig Nobel Prize spoof awards.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - A Sri Lankan man who raised suspicion by the way he kept looking around in an airport departure lounge was found to be carrying nearly a kilogram (2.2 lb) of gold stashed in his rectum, a customs official said on Monday.

(Reuters) - A novel U.S. legal battle over who owned a famous smiling "selfie" taken by a critically endangered monkey six years ago - the animal who snapped the picture or the nature photographer who owned the camera - has been settled out of court.